Miscellanies Upon Various Subjects

by John Aubrey

MAGICK.

IN Barbary are wizards, who do smear their hands with some black ointment,and then do hold them up to the sun, and in a short time you shall see delineated in that black stuff, the likeness of what you desire to have an answer of. It was desired to know, whether a ship was in safety, or no? there appeared in the woman's hand the perfect lineaments of a ship under sail. This Mr. W. Cl. a merchant of London, who was factor there several years, protested to me, that he did see. He is a person worthy of belief.

A parallel method to this is used in England, by putting the white of a new laid egg in a beer glass, and expose it to the sun in hot weather, as August, when the sun is in Leo, and they will perceive their husband's profession.

There are wonderful stories of the Bannians in India, viz. of their predictions, cures, &c. of their charming crocodiles, and serpents: and that one of them walked over an arm of the sea, he was seen in the middle, and never heard of afterwards.

The last summer, on the day of St. John the Baptist, 1694, I accidentally was walking in the pasture behind Montague house, it was 12 o'clock. I saw there about two or three and twenty young women, most of them well habited, on their knees very busy, as if they had been weeding. I could not presently learn what the matter was; at last a young man told me, that they were looking for a coal under the root of a plantain, to put under their head that night, and they should dream who would be their husbands:It was to be sought for that day and hour.

The women have several magical secrets handed down to them by tradition, for this purpose, as, on St. Agnes' night, 21st day of Jannary, take a row of pins, and pull out every one, one after another, saying a Pater Noster, or (Our Father) sticking a pin in your sleeve, and you will dream of him, or her, you shall marry. Ben Jonson in one of his Masques make some mention of this.

And on sweet Saint Agnes night
Please you with the promis'd sight,
Some of husbands, some of lovers,
Which an empty dream discovers,

Another. *To know whom one shall marry.

You must lie in another county, and knit the left garter about the right legged stocking (let the other garter and stocking alone) and as you rehearse these following verses, at every comma, knit a knot.

This knot I knit,
To know the thing, I know not yet,
That I may see,
The man (woman) that shall my husband (wife) be,
How he goes, and what he wears,
And what he does, all days, and years.

Accordingly in your dream you will see him: if a musician, with a lute or other instrument; if a scholar, with a book or papers.

A gentlewoman that I knew, confessed in my hearing, that she used this method, and dreamt of her husband whom she had never seen: about two or three years after, as she was on Sunday at church, (at our Lady's church in Sarum) up pops a young Oxonian in the pulpit: she cries out presently to her sister, this is the very face of the man that I saw in my dream. Sir William Soames's Lady did the like.

Another way, is, to charm the moon thus: at the first appearance of the new moon* after new year's day, go out in the evening, and stand over the spars of a gate or stile, looking on the moon and say, **

All hail to the moon, all hail to thee,
I prithee good moon reveal to me,
This night, who my husband (wife) must be.

You must presently after go to bed.

* Some say any other new moon is as good.
** In Yorkshire they kneel on a ground-fast stone.

I knew two gentlewomen that did thus when they were young maids, and they had dreams of those that married them.

Alexander Tralianus, of curing diseases by spells, charms, &c. is cited by Casaubon, before John Dee's Book of Spirits: it is now translated out of the Greek into English.

Moreri's Great Historical, Geographical, and Poetical Dictionary. Abracadabra, a mysterious word, to which the superstitious in former times attributed a magical power to expel diseases, especially the tertian-ague, worn about their neck in this manner.

Some think, that Basilides, the inventor, intends the name of GOD by it. The method of the cure was prescribed in these verses.

"Inscribes Chartae quod dicitur Abracadabra
Saepius, & subter repetes, sed detrahe summam
Et magis atque magis desint elementa figuris
Singula quae semper capies & caetera figes,
Donec in angustum redigatur Litera Conum,
His lina nexis collo redimire memento.
Talia languentis conducent Vincula collo,
Lethalesque abigent (miranda potentia) morbos".

Abracadabra, strange mysterious word,
In order writ, can wond'rous cures afford.
This be the rule:-a strip of parchment take,
Cut like a pyramid revers'd in make.
Abracadabra, first at length you name,
Line under line, repeating still the same:
Cut at its end, each line, one letter less,
Must then its predecessor line express;
'Till less'ning by degrees the charm descends
With conic form, and in a letter ends.
Round the sick neck the finish'd wonder tie,
And pale disease must from the patient fly.

Mr. Schoot, a German, hath an excellent book of magick: it is prohibited in that country. I have here set down three spells, which are much approved.

**To cure an Ague.

Write this following spell in parchment, and wear it about your neck.
It must be writ triangularly.

A B R A C A D A B R A A B R A C A D A B R A B R A C A D A B A B R A C A D A A B R A C A D A B R A C A A B R A C A B R A A B R A B A

With this spell, one of Wells, hath cured above a hundred of the ague.

**To cure the biting of a Mad-Dog, write these words in paper, viz.

"Rebus Rubus Epitepscum", and give it to the party, or beast bit, to eat in bread, &c. A Gentleman of good quality, and a sober grave person, did affirm, that this receipt never fails.

**To cure the Tooth-Ach: out of Mr. Ashmole's manuscript writ with his own hand.

"Mars, hur, abursa, aburse".
Jesu Christ for Mary's sake,
Take away this Tooth-Ach.

Write the words three times; and as you say the words, let the party burn one paper, then another, and then the last. He says, he saw it experimented, and the party "immediately cured."

Mr. Ashmole told me, that a woman made use of a spell to cure an ague, by the advice of Dr. Nepier; a minister came to her, and severely repremanded her, for making use of a diabolical help, and told her, she was in danger of damnation for it, and commanded her to burn it. She did so, and her distemper returned severely; insomuch that she was importunate with the Doctor to use the same again; she used it, and had ease. But the parson hearing of it, came to her again, and thundered hell and damnation, and frighted her so, that she burnt it again. Whereupon she fell extremely ill, and would have had it a third time; but the Doctor refused, saying, that she had contemned and slighted the power and goodness of the blessed spirits (or Angels) and so she died. The cause of the Lady Honywood's Desparation was, that she had used a spell to cure her.

"Jamblicus de Mysteriis de nominibus Divinis."

"Porphyrius querit, cur Sacerdotes utantur nominibus quibusdam nihil significantibus ? Jamblicus respondet, omnia ejusmodi nomina significare aliquid apud deos: quamvis in quibusdam significata nobis sint ignota, esse tamen nota quaedam, quorum interpretationem divinitus accepimus, omnino vero modum ineis significandi ineffabilem esse. Neque secundum imaginationes humanas, sed secundum intellectum qui in nobis est, divinus, vel potius simpliciore praestantiorieque modo secundum intellectum diis unitum. Auferendum igitur omnes excogitationes & rationales discursus, atque assimulationes naturalis vocis ipsius congenitas, ad res positas innatum. Et quemadmodum character symbolicus divinae similitudinis in se intellectualis est, atque divinus, ita hunc ipsum in omnibus supponnere, accipereque debemus, &c."

**Jamblicus, concerning the Mysteries relating to divine names.

Porphyrius asks the question why Priests make use of certain names which carry with them no known import or signification ? Jamblicus replies, that all and every of those sort of names have their respective significations among the Gods, and that though the things signified by some of them remain to us unknown, yet there are some which have come to our knowledge, the interpretation of which we have received from above. But that the manner of signifying by them, is altogether ineffable. Not according to human imaginations, but according to that divine intellect which reigns within us, or rather according to an intellect that has an union with the Gods, in a more simple and excellent manner. And whereas the symbolical character of the divine likeness is in it self intellectual and divine, so are we to take and suppose it to be, in all, &c.

** To cure an ague, Tertian or Quartan.

Gather Cinquefoil in a good aspect of {Jupiter} to the {Moon} and let the moon be in the Mid-Heaven, if you can, and take —- of the powder of it in white wine: if it be not thus gathered according to the rules of astrology, it hath little or no virtue in it. With this receipt —- one Bradley, a quaker at Kingston Wick upon Thames, (near the bridge end) hath cured above an hundred.

**To cure the Thrush.

There is a certain piece in the beef, called the mouse-piece, which given to the child, or party so affected to eat, doth certainly cure the thrush. From an experienced midwife.

**Another to cure a Thrush.

Take a living frog, and hold it in a cloth, that it does not go down into the child's mouth; and put the head into the child's mouth 'till it is dead; and then take another frog, and do the same.

**To cure the Tooth-Ach.

Take a new nail, and make the gum bleed with it, and then drive it into an oak. This did cure William Neal's son, a very stout gentleman, when he was almost mad with the pain, and had a mind to have pistolled himself.

**For the Jaundice.

The jaundice is cured, by putting the urine after the first sleep, to the ashes of the ash-tree, bark of barberries.

**To cure a Bullock, that hath the Whisp,
(that is)lame between the Clees.

Take the impression of the bullock's foot in the earth, where he hath trod then dig it up, and stick therein five or seven thorns on the wrong side, and then hang it on a bush to dry: and as that dries, so the bullock heals. This never fails for wisps. From Mr. Pacy, a yRoman in Surry.

**To cure a beast that is sprung, (that is) poisoned.

It lights mostly upon Sheep. Take the little red spider, called a tentbob, (not so big as a great pins-head) the first you light upon in the spring of the year, and rub it in the palm of your hand all to pieces: and having so done, piss on it, and rub it in, and let it dry; then come to the beast and make water in your hand, and throw it in his mouth. It cures in a matter of an hour's time. This rubbing serves for a whole year, and it is no danger to the hand. The chiefest skill is to know whether the beast be poisoned or no. From Mr. Pacy.

**To staunch Bleeding.

Out an ash of one, two, or three years growth, at the very hour and minute of the sun's entring into Taurus: a chip of this applied will stop it; if it is a shoot, it must be cut from the ground. Mr. Nicholas Mercator, astronomer, told me that he had tried it with effect. Mr. G. W. says the stick must not be bound or holden; but dipped or wetted in the blood. When King James II. was at Salisbury, 1688, his nose bled near two days; and after many essays in vain, was stopped by this sympathetick ash, which Mr. William Nash, a surgeon in Salisbury, applied.

**Against an evil Tongue.

Take Unguentum populeum and Vervain, and Hypericon, and put a red hot iron into it; you must anoint the back bone, or wear it on your breast. This is printed in Mr. W. Lilly's Astrology. Mr. H. C. hath tried this receipt with good success.

Vervain and dill,
Hinders witches from their will.

A house (or chamber) somewhere in London, was haunted; the curtains would be rashed at night, and awake the gentleman that lay there, who was musical, and a familiar acquaintance of Henry Lawes. Henry Lawes to be satisfied did lie with him; and the curtains were rashed so then. The gentleman grew lean and pale with the frights; one Dr. —- cured the house of this disturbance, and Mr. Lawes said,that the principal ingredient was Hypericon put under his pillow.

In Herefordshire, and other parts, they do put a cold iron bar upon their barrels, to preserve their beer from being soured by thunder. This is a common practice in Kent.

To hinder the night mare, they hang in a string, a flint with a hole in it (naturally) by the manger; but best of all they say, hung about their necks, and a flint will do it that hath not a hole in it. It is to prevent the nightmare, viz. the hag, from riding their horses, who will sometimes sweat all night. The flint thus hung does hinder it.

Mr. Sp. told me that his horse which was bewitched, would break bridles and strong halters, like a Samson. They filled a bottle of the horse's urine, stopped it with a cork and bound it fast in, and then buried it underground: and the party suspected to be the witch, fell ill, that he could not make water, of which he died. When they took up. the bottle, the urine was almost gone; so, that they did believe, that if the fellow could have lived a little longer, he had recovered.

It is a thing very common to nail horse-shoes on the thresholds of doors: which is to hinder the power of witches that enter into the house. Most houses of the West end of London, have the horse-shoe on the threshold. It should be a horse-shoe that one finds. In the Bermudas, they use to put an iron into the fire when a witch comes in. Mars is enemy to Saturn. There are very memorable stories of witches in Gage's Survey of the West-Indies of his own Knowledge: which see.

At Paris when it begins to thunder and lighten, they do presently ring out the great bell at the Abbey of St. Germain, which they do believe makes it cease. The like was wont to be done heretofore in Wiltshire; when it thundered and lightened, they did ring St. Aldhelm's bell, at Malmsbury Abbey. The curious do say, that the ringing of bells exceedingly disturbs spirits.

In the Golden Legend by W. de Worde. It is said the evill spirytes that ben in the regyon of th'ayre doubte moche whan they here the belles rongen. And this is the cause why the belles ben rongen whan it thondreth, and whan grete tempeste aud outrages of wether happen to the ende that the feudes and wycked spirytes shold be abasshed, and flee and cease of the movynge of tempeste. Fol. xxiv.

TRANSPORTATION BY AN INVISIBLE POWER.

**A Letter from the Reverend Mr. Andrew Paschal, B.D. Rector of
Chedzoy in Somersetshire, to John Aubrey, Esq. at Gresham College,
London.

SIR,

I LAST week received a letter from a learned friend, the minister of
Barnstable in Devon, which I think worthy your perusal. It was dated
May 3, 1683, and is as follows. (He was of my time in Queen's
College, Cambridge.)

There having been many prodigious things performed lately in a parish adjoining to that which Bishop Sparrow presented me to, called Cheriton-Bishop, by some discontented daemon, I can easily remember, that I owe you an account thereof, in lieu of that which you desired of me, and which I could not serve you in.

About November last, in the parish of Spreyton in the county of Devon, there appeared in a field near the dwelling house of Philip Furze, to his servant Francis Pry, being of the age of twenty-one, next August, an aged gentleman with a pole in his hand, and like that he was wont to carry about with him when living, to kill moles withal, who told the young man he should not be afraid of him; but should tell his master, i. e. his son, that several legacies that he had bequeathed were unpaid, naming ten shillings to one, ten shillings to another, &c. Pry replied, that the party he last named was dead. The Spectrum replied, he knew that, but said it must be paid to (and named) the next relation. These things being performed, he promised he would trouble him no further. These small legacies were paid accordingly. But the young man having carried twenty shillings ordered by the Spectrum to his sister Mrs. Furze, of the parish of Staverton near Totness, which money the gentlewoman refused to receive, being sent her, as she said, from the Devil. The same night Fry lodging there, the Spectrum appeared to him again, whereupon Fry challenged his promise not to trouble him, and said he had done all he desired him; but that Mrs. Furze would not receive the money. The Spectrum replied, that is true indeed; but bid him ride to Totness and buy a ring of that value, and that she would take. Which was provided for her and received by her. Then Fry rode homewards attended by a servant of Mrs. Furze. But being come into Spreyton parish, or rather a little before, he seemed to carry an old gentlewoman behind him, that often threw him off his horse, and hurried him with such violence, as astonished all that saw him, or heard how horridly the ground was beaten; and being come into his master's yard, Pry's horse (a mean beast) sprung at once twenty-five feet. The trouble from the man- spectre ceased from this time. But the old gentlewoman, Mrs. Furze, Mr. Furze's second wife, whom the Spectre at his first appearance to Fry, called, that wicked woman my wife, (though I knew her, and took her for a very good woman) presently after appears to several in the house, viz. to Fry, Mrs. Thomasin Gidley, Anne Langdon, born in my parish, and to a little child which was forced to be removed from the house; sometimes in her own shape, sometimes in shapes more horrid, as of a dog belching fire, and of a horse, and seeming to ride out of the window, carrying only one pane of glass away, and a little piece of iron. After this Fry's head was thrust into a narrow space, where a man's fist could not enter, between a bed and a wall; and forced to be taken thence by the strength of men, all bruised and bloody; upon this it was thought fit to bleed him; and after that was done, the binder was removed from his arm, and conveyed about his middle and presently was drawn so very straight, it had almost killed him, and was cut asunder, making an ugly uncouth noise. Several other times with handkerchiefs, cravats and other things he was near strangled, they were drawn so close upon his throat. He lay one night in his periwig (in his master's chamber, for the more safety) which was torn all to pieces. His best periwig he inclosed in a little box on the inside with a joined-stool, and other weight upon it; the box was snapped asunder, and the wig torn all to flitters. His master saw his buckles fall all to pieces on his feet. But first I should have told you the fate of his shoe strings, one of which a gentlewoman greater than all exception, assured me, that she saw it come out of his shoe, without any visible hand, and fling itself to the farther end of the room; the other was coming out too, but that a maid prevented and helped it out, which crisped and curled about her hand like a living eel. The cloaths worn by Anne Langdon and Fry, (if their own) were torn to pieces on their backs. The same gentlewoman, being the daughter of the minister of the parish, Mr. Roger Specott, showed me one of Fry's gloves, which was torn in his pocket while she was by. I did view it near and narrowly, and do seriously confess that it was torn so very accurately in all the seams and in other places, and laid abroad so artificially, and it is so dexterously tattered, (and all done in the pocket in a minute's time) as nothing human could have done it; no cutler could have made an engine to do it so. Other fantastical freeks have been very frequent, as the marching of a great barrel full of salt out of one room into another; an andiron laying itself over a pan of milk that was scalding on the fire, and two flitches of bacon descending from the chimney where they hung, and laid themselves over that andiron. The appearing of the Spectrum (when in her own shape) in the same cloaths, to seeming, which Mrs. Furze her daughter-in-law has on. The intangling of Fry's face and legs, about his neck, and about the frame of the chairs, so as they have been with great difficulty disengaged.

But the most remarkable of all happened in that day that I passed by the door in my return hither, which was Easter-eve, when Fry returning from work (that little he can do) he was caught by the woman spectre by the skirts of his doublet, and carried into the air; he was quickly missed by his master and the workmen, and a great enquiry was made for Francis Fry, but no hearing of him; but about half-an-hour after Fry was heard whistling and singing in a kind of a quagmire. He was now affected as he was wont to be in his fits, so that none regarded what he said; but coming to himself an hour after, he solemnly protested, that the daemon carried him so high that he saw his master's house underneath him no bigger than a hay-cock, that he was in perfect sense, and prayed God not to suffer the Devil to destroy him; that he was suddenly set down in that quagmire. The workmen found one shoe on one side of the house, and the other shoe on the other side; his periwig was espied next morning hanging on the top of a tall tree. It was soon observed, that Fry's part of his body that had laid in the mud, was much benumed, and therefore the next Saturday, which was the eve of Low-Sunday, they carried him to Crediton to be let blood; which being done, and the company having left him for a little while, returning they found him in a fit, with his forehead all bruised and swoln to a great bigness, none able to guess how it came, till he recovered himself, and then he told them, that a bird flew in at the window with a great force, and with a stone in its mouth flew directly against his forehead. The people looked for it, and found on the ground just under where he sat, not a stone, but a weight of brass or copper, which the people were breaking, and parting it among themselves. He was so very ill, that he could ride but one mile or little more that night, since which time I have not heard of him, save that he was ill handled the next day, being Sunday. Indeed Sir, you may wonder that I have not visited that house, and the poor afflicted people; especially, since I was so near, and passed by the very door: but besides that, they have called to their assistance none but nonconforming ministers. I was not qualified to be welcome there, having given Mr. Furze a great deal of trouble the last year about a conventicle in his house, where one of this parish was the preacher. But I am very well assured of the truth of what I have written, and (as more appears) you shall hear from me again.

I had forgot to tell you that Fry's mother came to me, grievously bewailing the miserable condition of her son. She told me, that the day before he had five pins thrust into his side. She asked; and I gave her the best advice I could. Particularly, that her son should declare all that the spectre, especially the woman gave him in charge, for I suspect, there is "aliquid latens"; and that she should remove him thence by all means. But I fear that she will not do it. For I hear that Anne Langdon is come into my parish to her mother, and that she is grievously troubled there. I might have written as much of her, as of Fry, for she had been as ill treated, saving the aerial journey. Her fits and obsessions seem to be greater, for she screeches in a most hellish tone. Thomasin Gidley (though removed) is in trouble I hear.

Sir, this is all my friend wrote. This letter came inclosed in another from a clergyman, my friend, who lives in those parts. He tells me all the relations he receives from divers persons living in Spreyton and the neighbouring parishes, agree with this. He spake with a gentleman of good fashion, that was at Crediton when Fry was blooded, and saw the stone that bruised his forehead; but he did not call it copper or brass, but said it was a strange mineral. That gentleman promised to make a strict inquiry on the place into all particulars, and to give him the result: which my friend also promises me; with hopes that he shall procure for me a piece of that mineral substance, which hurt his forehead.

The occasion of my friend's sending me this narrative, was my entreating him sometime since, to inquire into a thing of this nature, that happened in Barnstable, where he lives. An account was given to me long since, it fills a sheet or two, which I have by me: and to gratify Mr. Glanvil who is collecting histories for his "Sadducismus Triumphatus". I desired to have it well attested, it being full of very memorable things; but it seems he could meet only a general consent as to the truth of the things; the reports varying in the circumstances.

Sir, Yours.

**A Copy of a Letter from a learned Friend of mine in SCOTLAND, dated
March 25, 1695.

HONOURED SIR,

I RECEIVED yours dated May 24th, 1694, in which you desire me to send you some instances and examples of Transportation by an Invisible Power. The true cause of my delaying so long, to reply to that letter, was not want of kindness; but of fit materials for such a reply.

As soon as I read your letter of May 24, I called to mind, a story which I heard long ago, concerning one of the Lord Duffus, (in the shire of Murray) his predicessors of whom it is reported, that upon a time, when he was walking abroad in the fields near to his own house, he was suddenly carried away, and found the next day at Paris in the French King's cellar, with a silver cup in his hand; that being brought into the King's presence and questioned by him, who he was ? and how he came thither ? he told his name, his country, and the place of his residence, and that on such a day of the month (which proved to be the day immediately preceding) being in the fields, he heard the noise of a whirl-wind, and of voices crying Horse and Hattock, (this is the word which the fairies are said to use when they remove from any place) whereupon he cried (Horse and Hattock) also, and was immediately caught up, and transported through the air, by the fairies to that place, where after he had drank heartily he fell asleep, and before he awoke, the rest of the company were gone, and had left him in posture wherein he was found. It is said, the King gave him the cup which was found in his hand, and dismissed him.

This story (if it could be sufficiently attested) would be a noble instance for your purpose, for which cause I was at some pains to enquire into the truth of it, and found the means to get the present Lord Duffus's opinion thereof; which shortly is, that there has been, and is such a tradition, but that he thinks it fabulous; this account of it, his Lordship had from his father, who told him that he had it from his father, the present Lord's grandfather; there is yet an old silver cup in his Lordship's possession still, which is called the Fairy Cup; but has nothing engraven upon it, except the arms of the family.

The gentleman, by whose means I came to know the Lord Duffus's sentiment of the foregoing story, being tutor to his Lordship's eldest son, told me another little passage of the same nature, whereof he was an eye witness. He reports, that when he was a boy at school in the town of Torres, yet not so young, but that he had years and capacity, both to observe and remember that which fell out; he and his school-fellows were upon a time whipping their tops in the church-yard before the door of the church; though the day was calm, they heard a noise of a wind, and at some distance saw the small dust begin to arise and turn round, which motion continued, advancing till it came to the place where they were; whereupon they began to bless themselves: but one of their number (being it seems a little more bold and confident than his companions) said, Horse and Hattock with my top, and immediately they all saw the top lifted up from the ground; but could not see what way it was carried, by reason of a cloud of dust which was raised at the same time: they sought for the top all about the place where it was taken up, but in vain; and it was found afterwards in the church-yard, on the other side of the church. Mr. Steward (so is the gentleman called) declared to me that he had a perfect remembrance of this matter.

The following account I received, November last, from Mr. Alexander Mowat, a person of great integrity and judgment, who being minister at the church at Lesley, in the shire of Aberdene, was turned out for refusing the oath of test, anno 1681. He informs, that he heard the late Earl of Caithness, who was married to a daughter of the late Marquis of Argyle, tell the following story, viz. That upon a time, when a vessel which his Lordship kept for bringing home wine and other provisions for his house, was at sea; a common fellow, who was reputed to have the second-sight, being occasionally at his house; the Earl enquired of him, where his men (meaning those in the ship) were at that present time ? the fellow replied, at such a place, by name, within four hours sailing of the harbour, which was not far from the place of his Lordship's residence: the Earl asked, what evidence he could give for that ? the other replied, that he had lately been at the place, and had brought away with him one of the seamen's caps, which he delivered to his Lordship. At the four hours end, the Earl went down himself to the harbour, where he found the ship newly arrived, and in it one of the seamen without his cap; who being questioned, how he came to lose his cap ? answered, that at such a place (the same the second-sighted man had named before) there arose a whirl-wind which endangered the ship, and carried away his cap: the Earl asked, if he would know his cap when he saw it ? he said he would; whereupon the Earl produced the cap, and the seaman owned it for that, which was taken from him.

This is all the information which I can give at present concerning Transportation by an Invisible Power. I am sorry that I am able to contribute so little to the publishing of so curious a piece as it seems your collection of Hermetick Philosophy will be. I have given instructions to an acquaintance of mine now living at Kirkwall, and took him engaged when he left this place, to inform him concerning the old stone monuments, the plants and cures in the Orcades, and to send me an account. But I have not heard from him as yet, though I caused a friend that was writing to him, to put him in mind of his promise; the occasions of correspondence betwixt this place and Orkney are very rare.

SIR,
Your faithful affectionate friend
And servant,
J. G.

SIR,

'Tis very likely my Lord Keeper, [North] (if an account of a thing so considerable, hath not been presented to him by another hand) will take it kindly from you. I would transcribe it for Dr. Henry More, to whom, as I remember, I promised some time since an account of the Barnstable apparition; but my hands are full of work. May I beg of you to visit Dr. Whitchcot, minister of St. Laurence church, and to communicate a sight of this letter from Barnstable: probably he will be willing to make his servant transcribe it, and to convey it to Dr. More. Pray present my humble service to him, as also my affectionate service to our friends Mr. Hook and Mr. Lodwick. I ever rest, SIR,

Your most faithful
And affectionate servant,

Chedzoy. ANDREW PASCHAL.

THERE was in Scotland one —- (an obsessus) carried in the air several times in the view of several persons, his fellow-soldiers. Major Henton hath seen him carried away from the guard in Scotland, sometimes a mile or two. Sundry persons are living now, (1671) that can attest this story. I had it from Sir Robert Harley (the son) who married Major Henton's widow; as also from E. T. D. D.

A gentleman of my acquaintance, Mr. M. was in Portugal, anno 1655, when one was burnt by the inquisition for being brought thither from Goa, in East-India, in the air, in an incredible short time.